The Documentary Podcast

The hack that changed the world

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2009, someone broke into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK and stole emails. The material was distributed onlin...

On the Covid ward

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Frontline medical teams in the UK have fine-tuned the physical treatment of severely ill Covid patients. But one thing that has gone largely unnoticed...

Climate: Coal mining

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Moving away from the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas has been a major talking point at the COP 26 climate conference. Two coal mine workers...

The fight for Nazanin’s freedom

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The husband of a British-Iranian charity worker held in Iran since 2016 has been on hunger strike again to push for her release. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcl...

Evia’s inferno

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the UN climate conference in Glasgow drawing to a close Assignment brings us the final programme in a series which has been telling the story of ...

More yield, less field

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This year Zimbabwe has had a bumper crop of the staple food, maize. It is only the second time in two decades that it has grown enough food for the wh...

Climate: Civil disobedience

06 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Usually protests against climate change take the form of marches or protests but for some activists this is not enough. Host Nuala McGovern hears from...

Tree planting and climate change

06 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Trees absorb carbon dioxide - the main gas heating the planet - so planting more of them is seen by many as a possible climate change solution. But ho...

The Ahr Valley flood

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The worst effects of climate change are often framed as a problem for the future. But for some, the worst has already happened. As world leaders gathe...

A Geochemical HIstory of LIfe on Earth: 5. The Anthropocene

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Could human engineering stabilise the Earth's climate and chemistry in the long term? Tim Lenton of Exeter University explains why the Gaia hypothesis...

The Story of Aids: 4. The end of an epidemic?

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When President Thabo Mbeki came to power in South Africa in 1999, the country was gripped by an HIV-Aids epidemic - and the president's decision to qu...

Climate: Animals under threat

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The changing planet is threatening a number of vulnerable and endangered species, and host Nuala McGovern hears from three experts on polar bears, sno...

Ros Atkins on: The US and China’s climate commitments

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of COP26, the big climate change summit in Glasgow, Ros Atkins looks at the climate promises of two of the world’s biggest polluters – the U...

Lytton Burns

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The worst effects of climate change are often framed as a problem for the future. But for some, the worst has already happened. As world leaders prepa...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 4. The great chemistry experiment

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Justin looks at the period since the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, which had seen a steadily cooling climate - until we humans turned up. What ...

The Story of Aids: 3. Aids denialism in South Africa

23 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Aids began to emerge in the USA and Europe in the 1980s, South Africa was a fractured country, divided by Apartheid. During this time, the ruling...

Climate: Changing seas

23 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As world leaders, scientists and activists prepare for the UN climate change conference in Scotland, host Nuala McGovern hears how sea level rise is a...

Ros Atkins on: The UK’s rising Covid cases

23 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More than 50,000 Covid cases have been recorded in the UK for the first time since mid-July. Hospital admissions are also rising, however, daily death...

Denmark’s Red Van

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A unique project aimed at reducing harm to women selling sex in Copenhagen… Every weekend night in Copenhagen’s red light district of Vesterbro, a...

The lost art of breathing

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After recovering from pneumonia for the third time, journalist James Nestor took decisive action to improve his lungs. He questioned why so many human...

A series of unfortunate events

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Rowlatt discovers how phosphorus may have held evolution back for a billion years. How plants first colonised the land - precipitating an ice a...

The Story of Aids: 2. Act Up fights back

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It began in March of 1987, when the playwright Larry Kramer gave a speech at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York’s West Villag...

World of Wisdom: Forgiveness

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Forgiving someone who has hurt us badly can seem impossible. Bearing a grudge can feel like carrying a bag or rocks. Can we learn to move on and forgi...

Climate: Activists

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

World leaders, scientists and activists are preparing for next month’s UN climate change summit in Scotland. These talks have been taking place for ...

Ros Atkins on: China-Taiwan tensions

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In recent weeks, China has sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone. The Taiwanese Defence Minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, has...

Russia: The limits of freedom

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In August, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, was expelled from Russia – a country she’s reported on from the start of Vladimir Pu...

Somalia’s forgotten hostages

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The sailors held captive for years, and the man who managed to free them.Somali pirates made millions of dollars hijacking ships and holding their cre...

World Book Café: PEN

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

100 years ago English PEN was founded to create a “common meeting ground in every country for all writers.” and it quickly grew into an internatio...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 2. When bacteria ruled the world

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Justin explores the Precambrian period: a kind of dark ages, spanning most of our planet's history, but about which we have very few fossil records. W...

World of Wisdom: Hope and children

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic has made many people unsure about the future. Issues such as climate catastrophe have come to seem all the more real. How do we keep hope...

The Story of Aids: 1. The beginning

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We return to the beginning of the global Aids crisis and explore the personal and political struggles of the epidemic, as it unfolded in two very diff...

Coronavirus: Protecting vulnerable children

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Children who have a compromised immune system remain at high risk during the ongoing pandemic if they develop Covid-19. Their parents continue to prot...

The UK's net zero challenge

09 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to set a net zero carbon emissions goal by 2050. Now, as the country gets ready to host a major UN clim...

Pandora Papers: On the trail of dirty money

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one Briti...

Smart women, male genius

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Five hundreds years ago a Spanish physiologist declared that genius was stored in the testicles. Even today, studies have shown that people associate ...

A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 1. In the beginning

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How did this continuous chemical reaction that we call "life" first begin? And why did the hellish conditions of the early Earth provide the perfect b...

World of Wisdom: Making decisions

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Decisions about the course of our lives can seem overwhelming. When we come to a junction in our life it can be hard to decide which way to turn. Is t...

Coronavirus: Vaccine regret

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the life saving properties of vaccination against Covid-19, not everyone has chosen to get the jab - even in countries where vaccines are read...

Global supply chain disruption

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The UK and the US have been experiencing supply shortages across a number of industries. There are many factors involved, including the Covid-19 pande...

Northern Ireland’s Ceasefire Babies

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the UK’s most disputed region, Northern Ireland, the Unionist community has long been known for tenacity and even, say its critics, inflexibility...

Buy me love: Inside the world of love coaching

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Love coaching is a multi-billion dollar global industry, and one of the fastest growing in the world. More single people than ever are looking for adv...

World of Wisdom: Successful relationships

25 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To have a beautiful, strong, lasting, successful relationship at the core of our lives is an ideal that takes root at an early age. But do we always k...

Coronavirus: Vietnam and the Philippines

25 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Vietnam was, until recently, one of the world’s Covid success stories. Its policy of early border closures, lockdowns and track and tracing ensured ...

Ros Atkins on: Germany’s election

25 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Germany’s first female chancellor, Angela Merkel, is standing down after 16 years in office. This matters because a major figure is exiting the glob...

A long way from Vietnam

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Vietnamese migration to the UK is the second highest after Albania and each year the numbers are rising. Not even the tragedy of the Essex lorry disas...

The Fake Paralympians: 6.Fallout

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After years in the wilderness, athletes with a learning disability are back at the London 2012 Paralympics - and Dan is among them. There are new test...

Afghanistan and me

18 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As Afghanistan reaches a turning point with American troops leaving the country, BBC Pashto presenter Sana Safi tells the story of how her own life ha...

World of Wisdom: Dreams

18 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Can sticking to our dreams end up holding us back? Diane and her husband promised they would sell their home on retirement and travel the world. Sadly...

Coronavirus: Vaccinations and hospitals

18 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The United States continues to record some of the highest infection and death rates in the world due to Covid-19. Host Nuala McGovern brings together ...

Ros Atkins on: The ethics of Covid booster jabs

18 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The UK joins a growing number of rich countries offering Covid booster vaccines, whilst across Africa only 3% of people have been vaccinated against t...

The Rise and Fall of an International Fraudster

16 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Assignment reveals the inside story of Ramon Abbas, one of a new breed of global cyber-fraudsters. Snared by the FBI in 2020, Abbas is better known as...

The Fake Paralympians: 5. Court

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A criminal case is brought against the so-called fake Paralympians and the team’s organisers. The prosecutor gives the inside take on the legal proc...

World of Wisdom: Jealousy

11 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jealousy, rudeness, lack of respect - it can be hard not to be troubled by the way people treat us. Sometimes we may feel that people that we know are...

Afghanistan protests

11 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Taliban is stamping its authority on Afghanistan, and dealing forcefully with those demonstrating against the new regime. In recent days, the deta...

9/11: The day that changed our lives forever

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years on from the 9/11 terror attacks, New Yorkers and those affected by the events recall where they were and how they have managed to process...

The mystery of Havana syndrome

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gordon Corera investigates the mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. It began after some reported hearing strange sounds in...

The Fake Paralympians: 4. Probe

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There are allegations the cheating went wider within intellectual disability sport, and that it wasn’t just the gold-winning Spanish basketball team...

Mikis Theodorakis remembered

05 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Zorba’s theme from the 1964 film is what the composer Mikis Theodorakis will always be known for outside his native Greece, but in his time he was a...

World of Wisdom: Opening up again

04 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Covid restrictions are lifted, the effort to return to our former lives can present unexpected personal trials. Shops, restaurants and offices ha...

Women of Afghanistan

04 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The last US soldier has left Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in control of the vast majority of the country. Working women have been told to stay at ...

Moria - after the fire

02 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The fire that destroyed the sprawling Moria asylum seekers’ camp on the Greek island of Lesvos last September made headlines around the world. For t...

The Fake Paralympians: 3. Lost

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The cheating is now out in the open and the players - including genuinely-disabled captain Ray - have to hand back their gold medals. But how and when...

The world according to search

28 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What can we learn about a culture from what they search online? From xenophobia in Nigeria, shut-in teenagers in Japan, India’s biometric identity c...

World of Wisdom: Peace of mind

28 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Keeping some peace of mind when the world around you is in turmoil is a great challenge. Mohammed finds it hard to maintain concentration, he sleeps 1...

Chaos in Afghanistan

28 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite terror warnings, Afghans continued to gather at Kabul’s airport, desperate to get onto a plane. What was feared, and what is sadly familiar ...

Catalonia: Squatters, eviction and extortion

26 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How Catalonia’s housing crisis spawns opportunities for organised crime… Spain has a history of squatting. After the property crash of 2008 many ...

Archiving Black America

25 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"We are our history," said James Baldwin. But how history is remembered depends on what materials survive, and who deems those materials worthy of pre...

The Fake Paralympians: 2. Caught

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A basketball journalist in Spain recognises three of the players in the gold-medal-winning intellectual disability basketball team - and they are not ...

A bad business

21 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years ago, the brash Texan energy company Enron collapsed after its massive fraud was finally exposed. Investors and pension funds worldwide lo...

World of Wisdom: Bereavement and acceptance

21 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Akinkunmi has lost both his mother and his sister. Dr Shefali Tsabary helps him come to terms with bereavement, and discusses the idea of 'acceptance'...

Trying to flee Afghanistan

21 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan, thousands are attempting to leave the country, fearful for their safety. During the 20-year conflict, som...

India's living dead

19 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What would it be like if everyone believed you were dead? Lal Bihari knows exactly what that feels like. When he was 22 years old the Indian farmer wa...

The Fake Paralympians: 1. Gold

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ex-Paralympic swimmer Dan Pepper investigates the cheats who won gold and left a devastating legacy for learning disability sport.Ray Torres used to g...

OS Conversations: Afghanistan

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This audio was updated on 16th August.The Taliban is advancing towards Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as foreign forces prepare to fully withdraw fro...

World of Wisdom: Self-help for the spirit

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Life presents many personal challenges. Three spiritual advisors – Sister Dang Nghiem, Dr Shefali Tsabary and Eckhart Tolle offer guidance to member...

What’s Killing Israel’s Arabs?

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Israel’s Arab population is in the grip of a violent and deadly crime wave. Since the start of the year, scores of Arab citizens have lost their liv...

Hiroshima successors

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When photographer Haruka Sakaguchi set out to Hiroshima to document atomic bomb survivors' stories, she discovered they were far more difficult to fin...

Two smiley faces: Episode six

07 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the future, 10 years from now, will our fingers still reach for a laughing face with crying eyes? Will Unicode and its strict approval process for ...

OS Conversations: Olympic golden moments

07 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were always going to be different. They took place a year later than planned and were the first to be held during a pandemic, ...

Malta and the El Hiblu 3

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is the curious story of how a child refugee ended up in Malta accused of the most serious crime - of being a terrorist. Lamin was 13 when he ran ...

Africa’s vaccine ambitions

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Africa is a continent of 1.3 billion people, but makes less than 1% of the lifesaving vaccines it needs. The continent’s 54 nations are almost entir...

Two smiley faces: Episode five

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our journey into the emoji universe takes some surprising directions. We reveal some of the human stories behind those tiny pictures on our screens. F...

Beijing: Beyond the masks

31 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over a year after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the headlines in China, Liyang Liu explores the hidden impacts on people in her home city Beijing. Life ha...

Extreme weather

31 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In recent weeks the world has seen floods in Europe and China and devastating wildfires in Canada, the United States and Siberia. It’s difficult to ...

Rebuilding Beirut’s village in a city

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A year ago Johnny Khawand saw the home he grew up in ripped apart by the massive explosion in a chemical dump in the port of Beirut, Lebanon – one o...

A tale of two Tokyos

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The wait is finally over for the Tokyo Olympics, 2020. Ken Nishikawa and Nick Luscombe take inspiration and hope from the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, whic...

Two smiley faces: Episode four

25 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

So how do you get an emoji added to the list? We hear from the women who have had hundreds of emoji approved between them, from the sari, to the mirro...

The road to rock'n'roll

24 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a segregated US, black audiences, entertainers and entrepreneurs established their own network of live performance venues known as the Chitlin’ C...

The Tokyo Olympics

24 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A year later than planned, due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics are underway. Yet Covid cases in the capital are rising, and a recent poll showed t...

Dangerous liaisons in Sinaloa

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Mexican state of Sinaloa is synonymous with drug trafficking. With the profits from organised crime a driver of the local economy, the tentacles o...

Lex Gillette: A leap in the dark

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lex Gillette was seven years old when his eyes stopped working. At first, things were a little blurry, a little distorted. Then, after 10 operations t...

Two smiley faces: Episode three

18 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We travel to California to find out who controls the emoji available on every single smartphone in the world - the mysterious Unicode Consortium. This...

China in slogans

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China....

Breaking through

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Breaking, also known as break-dancing, borne in New York City in the 1970s, is set to make its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Four-time ...

Coronavirus: England Unlocking

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

England is about to do what no country has done before during the coronavirus pandemic - open up in the face of rapidly rising infections, driven by t...

Finding Grace

14 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1990 a body of a woman was discovered - near an abandoned farm house in Missouri. The victim had been restrained with six types of rope. P...

Sporting heroines of history

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Multi Gold-winning Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson explores the role of women in sport through history. She looks at some of the milestones in sport f...

Two smiley faces - part two

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The emoji, invented in Japan in the 1990s, and now standardised on every device and platform we have, has become a new type of global communication. W...

The mixed beat

10 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The voices of those from mixed race communities are more frequently heard today and are playing a more central role in shaping discussion around race,...

Coronavirus: Refusing the vaccine

10 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Official figures suggest the global death toll from Covid-19 now exceeds four million with the virus proliferating in Asia, Africa and South America, ...